Devouring The Dead (Book 2): Nemesis

by Watts, Russ

  “Harry!” Moira flung her arms around him.

  Harry embraced her. “Moira, where’s Tom? We have to hurry,” he said.

  “I don’t know. He’s around here somewhere. He was on his own.”

  “Listen, get the others and tell them to go down toward the pub. Get as many as you can and then go past the stocks and follow the path away from the castle. Follow it all the way to the cliff edge. There are some steps down to the ocean. It’ll be the safest way off this island. Don’t worry about Lazarus’ men. They forgot all about their allegiance and duties the moment the bullets started flying. They’re out to save their own skin now.”

  Moira ran, forcing her bloody shears into an approaching zombie as she did so. Its head slewed to one side and wobbled before falling off the zombie’s decomposing shoulders. Harry looked around for Norm and finally spotted him hiding behind the well. His fat backside was sticking out and there was no doubting who it was. Harry ran over to him.

  “Norm, give me the keys, now!”

  “Go away, you’ll give me away! Leave me alone, Harry. The zombies are...they’re everywhere. What...what do you want the keys for anyway? Lazarus wouldn’t…”

  I haven’t got time for this, thought Harry. He grabbed Norm and yanked the keyring off his belt.

  “Hey, give that back,” said Norm getting to his feet.

  “Fuck you, you fat freak,” said Harry pushing Norm back toward the well.

  Harry had hoped that Norm would fall down the well and disappear, but his plan didn’t quite work out as he had intended. He had given Norm a good shove and Norm, surprised, had indeed fallen over backwards into the well. Unfortunately, his obese frame was too big for the well’s opening and he got stuck, arms and legs flailing uselessly making him look like a beetle on its back.

  “Help! Help!” screamed Norm.

  Harry ran as the nearest zombies turned toward the sound. He watched as three, four, and then five, descended on Norm and began to tuck into the feast laid on for them. They gnawed at Norm’s limbs as he screamed in torment. Only when they had eviscerated all his limbs could Norm fit down the well and his screaming body fell to the bottom, finally stopping with a tremendous splash. When Norm’s bloated huge body reanimated, it found itself with no legs or arms, unable to climb out of the well, trapped forever.

  As Harry ran back to the castle, dodging the zombies who appeared to be increasing vastly in number, he was joined by Jessica.

  “I told Moira to get you lot out of here!” shouted Harry as they ran up the hill.

  “I’m not going anywhere without Rosa!” shouted Jessica back. Two zombies suddenly sprang toward her and Harry thrust the emerald encrusted sword at them. The blade swept viciously through the air and lopped the first zombie’s head clean off its shoulders. The second zombie tripped on a rock and as it fell forward, the sword embedded itself in its chest. Harry left the zombie and the sword behind and ran behind Jessica toward the castle.

  They reached the main doors to the castle and once inside the atrium, they stopped suddenly. Tom was stood facing Walker. Both were bloodied and bruised. Walker’s sleeves were rolled up and it was clear they had given up on their weapons and descended into a fist fight. Tom’s shirt had been ripped off and he had a nasty cut on his shoulder. Sweat dripped off his torso and every sinew, every muscle in his body was taut, pumping with adrenalin.

  They watched as Tom aimed a blow at Walker who easily dodged it. Tom was tiring and still losing blood from his leg. Walker swung and landed a hard blow on Tom’s temple. He fell to the floor and Walker picked him up in a stranglehold, his hands on Tom’s throat as he tried to crush his windpipe.

  Just as Harry was about to intervene, Tom reached around and grabbed Walker’s arms. He rolled forward, throwing Walker over his back. Gasping for air, Tom quickly jumped and kicked Walker in the head. There was a shout of pain, but Walker was not down and out yet. He swivelled and kicked Tom’s feet out from under him, and they both crumpled in a heap together.

  “Tom!” shouted Heidi. She pushed past Harry and Jessica in the doorway and fired wildly.

  Harry and Jessica ducked instinctively as Heidi fired three bullets at Walker. Tom rolled out of the way and Heidi stood over Walker firing the gun even though the chamber was empty.

  Tom grabbed Heidi and took the gun off her. He looked down at Walker. Heidi had hit him in the stomach once, missing with the other two shots. Tom looked down at him.

  “Go ahead, kill me,” sputtered Walker. He held both hands over his stomach, but blood was pumping through his fingers furiously. Tom didn’t need to kill him. He knew Walker would be dead in minutes anyway.

  “Where are they, you piece of shit? Where are my friends?” Tom knelt over Walker, lifted his head, and slammed it back down on the stone floor. “What did you do to them? Jackson, Glenda, Lenny...where are they?”

  Walker laughed and blood seeped from his mouth. “They’re dead, all dead.” He laughed again, louder. “You’ll never get out of here. You’ll die too.”

  Heidi let out a small cry. “Mum? Oh no, no.” She began crying and Harry went to comfort her. He held her to him as she wept.

  Tom decided maybe Walker was worth killing after all. He picked up his head, Tom’s thick hands holding Walker’s hair, and slammed his skull repeatedly onto the stone floor. After the third blow, Walker’s skull cracked, and after the fifth, he was dead. He had no idea at what point Walker had lost consciousness, but Tom continued battering Walker’s head onto the floor anyway until his head was nothing but mush and Tom’s hands were covered in what was left of Walker’s brains. He only stopped when Harry put a hand on his shoulder.

  “Tom, come on, we have to go.”

  Tom stood and turned around. “What about Rosa, Laurent?”

  “Follow me.”

  Tom picked up an axe and Harry led them down the steps to the dungeon. Heidi and Jessica followed.

  “Harry, thank God. I thought…” Rosa dropped the gun when she saw Jessica.

  Harry unlocked her cell, opened the door and Jessica barged past him into the cell.

  “Rosa, oh Rosa, what have they done to you?” cried Jessica as she held Rosa.

  Rosa couldn’t answer. She was sobbing and had buried her face in Jessica’s shoulder.

  Harry gave them a moment then spoke. “We have to get moving. We can’t stay here.” Suddenly, he realised Lazarus was not in the dungeons. “Rosa, where’s Lazarus?”

  “He just got up and left. He wasn’t dead, Harry. I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t.”

  “Okay, look, the state he’s in he won’t get far. The rate he was losing blood I’d give him no more than a few minutes. He’s dead meat. Let’s go.”

  With Jessica supporting Rosa, they went back upstairs and out onto the hillside. Heidi was quiet, reflecting on the death of her mother. She had half expected the worst, but it was still a shock. She had lost both her parents in the last day and she was feeling shell-shocked.

  “Harry, we need to get back to the causeway. Caterina’s waiting there for us in the ambulance. We’re going to use it to get to Penzance,” said Tom absently wiping Walker’s blood from his hands on his thighs.

  “Um, Tom,” said Harry, “where is it? Where’s the ambulance?”

  Tom looked across from the castle over to the beach, but the ambulance was gone. The slip road was empty and there was no sign of it or Caterina.

  “I don’t get it. We told her to wait. We told her to wait for us unless…”

  “Unless what?” asked Harry.

  Tom raced around the corner of the castle, almost straight into the arms of a waiting zombie. He felled the dead corpse swiftly, dropping it with one swing of the axe. He scanned the horizon, looking west in the direction of Penzance. The buildings of the town glistened in the sunlight, and across the water, Tom saw it. A huge naval ship was heading away from Penzance, out to see.

  “No. Oh please, no, not yet,” he said quietly as Harry came running around th
e corner after him. Heidi followed with Jessica and Rosa behind her. Jessica handed Heidi her saw and Heidi crushed the skull of an advancing zombie. Thankfully, most were drawn to the battles around the Mount. What few of Lazarus’ men were left, were fighting and shouting, attracting the dead toward them.

  “Harry, it’s gone. It’s too late,” said Tom despondently. “The navy is leaving.”

  “They can’t be going already,” said Jessica. “Tom, what do we do now? If Caterina and Jimmy took off, how are we going to get to Penzance? Can we catch up to them?”

  Tom threw his axe down in disgust. “It’s too late. I was too slow.”

  “Could we stay here?” asked Heidi. “Make this place secure again?”

  Tom shook his head. “No. If we stay on the Mount, we’d only end up getting attacked again, perhaps by someone with bigger guns or a bigger army. It’s not safe here anymore. Besides, look around you, there are zombies pouring over the causeway to the Mount, dozens and dozens of them, far more than we have bullets for or can take care of.

  “We’re going to be surrounded by hundreds of the fuckers soon; snarling, drooling, infected festering corpses, just waiting to take a bite out of us. Fighting back through them will be dangerous. You try to do that all the way to Penzance and you may as well just jump off this cliff right now.”

  “The water supply is infected now too,” said Harry thinking of the well and Norm. “There’s still a chance we could make it though,” said Harry. “There’s another way. I found a boat. I sent Moira there with Christina. It’s not far, come on we can make it!”

  Harry led them down the side of the hilltop, avoiding as many of the dead as they feasibly could, making as little noise as possible. The last thing they wanted to do was bring a hundred zombies with them to the boat. Harry noted that many of Lazarus’ men had been overrun, unable to cope with the sheer numbers of the zombies on the island now. Some of them had been devoured, but some only partially before being infected, dying, and reanimating. Harry found the steps down the cliff side and ushered Jessica, Rosa and Heidi down.

  “Harry, some of them are going to follow us, you know.” Tom picked up a discarded dagger and thrust it into the forehead of a zombie that had tried following them. It dropped dead at his feet, the dagger sticking upright like a flagpole. The moaning sound of so many zombies close by was unsettling. Being out in the open was unsettling.

  “I know, but this is the way, trust me. There’s a boat down there. This is really the only way out of here, Tom.”

  As Harry reached the base of the cliff, he heard shouting. It was coming from inside the cave and he recognised Christina’s voice.

  “No, we have to go back!”

  “Back? Did you see what was going on up there? There’s no way we’re going back now,” said Moira. “We wait for Harry. He’ll bring the others to us.”

  “I am not leaving Caterina alone with that kid. She needs me. She’s six months pregnant, for Christ’s sake, we can’t abandon her.”

  Harry continued into the cave where he saw the boat was still tied up. Christina and Moira were standing on the rocks arguing and another man was sat at their feet, idly tapping a sledgehammer against a wet rock whilst the ocean threw spray over them.

  “Moira, thank God, you found it, I was worried you wouldn’t,” said Harry embracing her.

  She held onto him, unable to admit her feelings for Harry were growing stronger. She knew he was a good ten years older than her, but they had forged a strong bond over the last few weeks. She wasn’t sure if he felt the same about her, but as long as he was alive, that was enough for her, for now.

  “Christina wants to go back for Cat,” said Moira, reluctantly letting Harry go.

  Tom stepped forward. “Christina, she’s gone. We need to use this boat to go too.”

  “What do you mean gone? We’ve only just got here, she can’t have gone already.”

  “It’s true,” said Heidi. “That navy boat was there. Jimmy must’ve seen it too. We’ve no transport, so…”

  Christina saw the looks on their faces and knew it was true. The navy had come already. So Caterina was alone with Jimmy? God help her if he didn’t get them to Penzance harbour in time. Christina looked past Tom and Heidi, and saw Rosa.

  “Oh Jesus, Rosa, what did they..?” Christina looked beyond her, but the steps were empty and she frowned. “What about Glenda? Lenny? Anyone?”

  Tom shook his head.

  “My friends too?” asked Mac. “Sally? Keisha? They didn’t make it?”

  “This is it,” said Harry.

  “Motherfucker. I hope you stuck it to the prick running this place.”

  “I did,” said Harry. “He’s long gone.”

  “Christina, we have to go, now,” said Tom feeling queasy. The adrenalin was wearing off and he felt cold. “You know how to steer this thing, don’t you, because none of us have a clue.”

  “Um, yeah, yeah, I have a yacht myself. Had a yacht. Not that I did much sailing myself. I always had someone else do it for me. I think I can figure something out. Yeah, okay.” She turned to Moira. “I’m sorry, Moira, about earlier. I didn’t mean anything, I was just upset.”

  “Don’t worry,” said Moira hugging Christina. “Now tell us what to do so we can get the hell off this place.”

  Christina got Moira and Mac to untie the boat as she jumped on board. Tom and Harry helped Rosa across, and Jessica and Heidi followed. Christina started the engine and everyone collapsed onto the deck, exhausted. Mac and Moira jumped aboard just as the first of the zombies came crawling around the steps to the cave. One saw the boat and reached for it futilely. The zombie tripped over the rocks and careered headlong into the shallow, choppy water. Behind it came more. Rotting bodies shuffled toward the boat searching for the living.

  Christina slowly steered the small boat out of the cave, past the cliff to the deeper ocean. Looking around the boat, she saw a group of people who had nearly killed themselves. Tom, as usual, was cut and bleeding. He looked like he had been in a fight with a bear. Harry was comforting Heidi, and Moira was sitting quietly beside him. Christina realised that Heidi had just lost both her parents and her heart reached out to her. Jessica and Rosa were sitting on the deck leaning against the railings. Jessica found an old blanket on the deck and wrapped it around Rosa. She was whispering into her ear, stroking her hair, holding her close. Never again would she want Rosa to be out of her sight, even for a second.

  Mac came and stood beside Christina. “That it?” he said pointing out to the ocean. There was a huge ship in the distance, a small grey spot on the horizon. “You think we can catch up with them?”

  Christina turned the wheel, taking them away from the Mount toward the ship. “We have to. If we don’t…”

  “If we don’t, then we’ll figure it out. I’ve seen you with Cat. She’s stronger than you think, you know. She won’t take no shit from Jimmy.” Mac dropped his sledgehammer onto the deck. “Guess I don’t need this anymore.”

  “Look at that,” said Christina. “They’re everywhere.”

  Mac looked back at the Mount. It was eerie. The dead were crawling all over it, scores of them eating the flesh of Lazarus’ men, tearing into the raw meat like starving dogs. The hillside was dotted with zombies amongst the rocks and the island resembled a giant ant hill. The morning was sunny, but the castle was dark, deserted and desolate. The castle was perched atop the hillside looking ominous, like a symbol of death. Mac shuddered. His friends Sally and Keisha had been brought here. He hoped they hadn’t been infected. He didn’t want to think of them walking around like that, like zombies.

  “Can I help? You know what you’re doing, right?” he asked Christina.

  “Yeah I’m fine, thanks Mac. I’ve got the basics covered anyway.” Christina looked around the boat. There was a small door to their side leading down into the cabin below deck. Apart from that the ship was empty. It looked like it had never been used. She sailed them away from the Mount and away
from the mainland in pursuit of the naval ship. She hoped they would be able to catch it up, but in reality, she doubted it. If they wanted to, the navy could charge away in a heartbeat. Where would they be then? Where would Caterina be?

  “At least we’re safe,” said Christina. “Sit down, get some rest. There’s no rush now. When you’re ready, maybe go down below and see if there’s a radio? We could try to raise the navy on it. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth a go.”

  “Sure. I just want check on Tom first, he looks pretty beat up.”

  Mac wandered over to Tom and Harry whilst Christina steered the boat on, its small engine chugging away.

  Jessica snuggled up closer to Rosa. Tears streaked their faces, but they were smiling.

  “I don’t know what I would do without you, Rosa.” Jess planted a soft kiss on Rosa’s lips.

  Rosa winced slightly, but kissed her back. Her lips were cracked and swollen. “Those men, are they all dead?”

  “Yep, all of them. You’re safe now,” said Jessica running her fingers through Rosa’s hair.

  “Good. After what they did to me I hope they rot in hell.”

  Jessica knew what they had done to Rosa. It was clear from the marks on her body how they had abused her. Harry had intimated as much to her, but it didn’t need saying out loud. When Jessica thought about what they had subjected her to it made her feel sick and angry. Rosa was so naïve and innocent, she shouldn’t be punished like that. What had she ever done to deserve being locked up with those animals?

  “You know, Rosa, I think we’re going to be okay.” Jessica took Rosa’s face and kissed her forehead. She looked directly into her eyes. “We’ll find somewhere safe again, some place to call home. You’re safe now. Nothing can keep us apart anymore.”